In this issue:

· A New Jewel in NY’s Green Necklace Opens in Brooklyn
· The Public Theater Speaks the Speech
· Brooklyn School Gets an “A” for Banning Beige
· A Salon Designed With Colorists in Mind
· Institute Hall Completes Science Quad at RIT
· NJ’s Gold Coast Gets Richer

A New Jewel in NY’s Green Necklace Opens in Brooklyn

Pier 1 at Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates

Six acres of open space recently opened at Pier 1 in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The park, designed by landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, includes 1,300 feet of promenade along the East River and 2.5 acres of lawn. Sustainable features include 300 pieces of reused granite from the Roosevelt Island Bridge to create the Granite Prospect, a tiered viewing deck. Stones from the Willis Avenue Bridge that was replaced in 2007 were placed along the western edge of Pier 1 to prevent sediment on the river bottom from washing away with currents and also provide support to the existing bulkhead. Clean bulk fill salvaged from Long Island Railroad drilling operations for the East Side Access project lies beneath the soil. Reclaimed lumber from demolished structures on the site was used for dam construction and park benches. Storm-water retention tanks for park irrigation, green roofs, the restoration of a wildlife habitat for local birds, and a manmade salt marsh to provide a naturalistic shoreline while creating a biologically productive tidal ecosystem are also included.

The Public Theater Speaks the Speech

The Public Theater.

Polshek Partnership Architects

The Public Theater recently held a ceremonial groundbreaking for renovations that have been in the works for more than 10 years. Polshek Partnership Architects is transforming the 19th-century building to include an expanded and refurbished lobby; an exterior entrance staircase with two ADA-accessible ramps and a glass covered canopy; a complete restoration of the historic brownstone façade; HVAC systems upgrade; an expanded and centrally located box office; a new mezzanine level including a community room/lounge with a capacity for 150 people; improved and expanded concessions service; and improved street visibility with six new poster boxes and exterior lighting. In conjunction with NYC’s Percent for Art program, the theater will incorporate media artist Ben Rubin’s “Shakespeare Machine,” a display screen installation that will cycle continuously through the text of Shakespeare’s plays and will be organized as a series of compositions, with no composition ever repeating twice.

Brooklyn School Gets an “A” for Banning Beige

The Achievement First Endeavor Charter School.

©Peter Mauss/Esto

The 71,000-square-foot former factory building that houses the Achievement First Endeavor Charter School in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, is a result of the re-use and renovation of existing structures designed by Rogers Marvel Architects (RMA). Pentagram, in collaboration with RMA, recently designed a series of environmental graphics for the building that was completed in January 2010. Based on a series of motivational slogans used by the school’s teachers, the graphics appear as a series of equations (”Education = Choice,” “Education = Freedom”) in the halls, around the perimeter of the gymnasium, and up a pre-cast concrete stair; they are also visible from the street. In rooms like the cafeteria, bands of color are used to define and enhance the architecture, creating an illusion of depth that expands the space. The project also features a skylit cafeteria and a rooftop play space. The school is supported by the Robin Hood Foundation.

A Salon Designed With Colorists in Mind

Vasken Salon.

Photo by Stan Wan

MSK Design Group has created the first boutique salon for hairstylist Vasken, in the Trump Building in White Plains. The 1,8000-square-foot salon specializes in color — color classes, training, and techniques — and was specifically designed to assure the accuracy of hair color design. A clean, white sheet of paper was a primary influence for the design of the salon; dashes of red and glossy geometric shapes punctuate the interior and showcase the salon’s floating ceiling, composed of white cylinders that allow for a glowing diffusion of soft, ambient light.

Institute Hall Completes Science Quad at RIT

Institute Hall at RIT.

Francis Cauffman

Francis Cauffman and Rochester-based Bergmann Associates have been selected by Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) to design Institute Hall, a $26-million research building that will complete the school’s science quadrangle. The four-story, 78,000-square-foot structure will house RIT’s departments of chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, and chemistry, and contain wet research labs, classrooms, a small vivarium, and RIT-Rochester General Health System Alliance facilities. Most of the buildings on RIT’s Modernist campus — with buildings designed by Hugh Stubbins & Associates, Roche Dinkeloo and Associates, Edward Larabee Barnes, and Harry Weese and Associates, among others — are solid red brick masses with dark glass. Institute Hall has a transparent, glazed core that is wrapped in a red brick shell. As part of the school’s campus-wide commitment to sustainability in its curricula, research, and physical environment, the project anticipates receiving at least a LEED Silver rating.

NJ’s Gold Coast Gets Richer

Garden Street Lofts.

Photo by Seong Kwon

Hoboken’s Garden Street Lofts, designed by SHoP Architects has received LEED Gold certification, becoming NJ’s only LEED Gold certified high-rise residential building. Completed in the fall of 2009, the seven-story project containing 30 residences consists of the renovation and conversion of a five-story, 35,400-square-foot former coconut warehouse originally constructed in 1911, and a five-story, 31,600-square-foot addition on an adjacent site with two new additional floors bridging the old and new structures. Numerous sustainable features include a sedum-covered green roof planted with native and non-native species, which allows for the absorption of water and reduces the building’s reflectivity. The façade’s custom fabricated zinc panel system is a pre-weathered metal requiring no treatment such as painting or other coatings, and it absorbs and reflects light.

In this issue:

· Moynihan Station Gets Green Light for Phase 1
· Neo-Moorish Mecca for Performing Arts Gets Modernized
· MLB Slides into New Home Base
· Grand Canal Theatre Debuts in Dublin
· Diagonal Mesh Bridges Past and Future
· Extreme Eco

Moynihan Station Gets Green Light for Phase 1

Farley Post Office.

Fordmadoxfraud

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has been given the green light by the Moynihan Station Development Corporation to start design work on Phase 1 of the transformation of the McKim, Mead & White-designed Farley Post Office into a new Moynihan Station. The initial phase is limited to underground infrastructure and platform expansion, thanks in part to an $83.3 million federal stimulus grant announced in February. The scope of work includes constructing two new entrances to Penn Station through the corners of the Farley Post Office Building. It will double the length and width of the West End Concourse, provide 13 new vertical access points to the platforms, and double the width of the 33rd Street Connector between Penn Station and the West End Concourse. Other critical infrastructure improvements include platform ventilation and catenary work. The late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan began advocating for the Penn Station expansion in the early 1990s. SOM has been involved almost as long, designing variations of the train hall in 2001 and again in 2007.

Neo-Moorish Mecca for Performing Arts Gets Modernized

View of Proposed 55th St Marquee.

Polshek Partnership Architects

New York City Center has unveiled plans by Polshek Partnership Architects to modernize the organization’s neo-Moorish Midtown building, a 1923 NYC landmark. Pending NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission approval, a new exterior canopy with lighting and signage on the façade is intended to create more street visibly and dramatically define the building within its urban context. The original box office and mezzanine lobbies will be faithfully restored and several new spaces will be introduced, including an expanded and redesigned street level lobby and patrons’ lounge that capitalizes on an existing alley space. The re-sloping of the auditorium floors will improve sightlines, and the reconfiguration and resizing of theater seating will improve comfort and accessibility. The renovation respects the original theater’s design motifs and the new design insertions are a result of a careful study and reinterpretation of the underlying geometric Islamic motifs. The performing arts complex contains a main stage, two smaller theaters, four studios, and 12-story office tower. The grand re-opening of the complex will take place in October 2011.

MLB Slides into New Home Base

MLB Midtown headquarters.

Paul Warchol

Butler Rogers Baskett in collaboration with C&G Partners has completed the redesign of Major League Baseball’s Midtown headquarters. The project includes a new 24,000-square-foot executive conference center; a 1,500-square-foot sub-dividable multi-purpose room with advanced audio-visual and teleconferencing capabilities; and eight meeting rooms. Multiple references to baseball — its history and the experience of being at a game — are part of the design. Carpet-and-terrazzo flooring reference a grass and dirt baseball diamond; conference tables are made from ash, the favored wood for baseball bats; and baseball headlines appear on LED tickers throughout the facility. A glass screen depicting a monumental Jackie Robinson stealing home in the first game of the 1955 World Series defines the lounge/breakout area.

Grand Canal Theatre Debuts in Dublin

Grand Canal Theatre.

©Ros Kavanagh

Designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind (SDL), the 2,000-seat Grand Canal Theatre in Dublin recently celebrated its grand opening. Located in the city’s Dockland’s section, the theater is sited prominently at the head of Grand Canal Dock in a large public piazza that has a five star hotel and residences on one side and an office building on the other. The concept for the angular glass-and-steel building is based on stages — the stage of the theater, the piazza, and the multiple-level lobby above the piazza. The theater becomes the main façade of the piazza, which will also serve as a stage for civic gatherings and as a grand outdoor lobby for the theater. SDL is also designing two galleria buildings for retail and commercial office space with courtyards that comprise the Grand Canal Square Theatre and Commercial Development project, expected to be complete in 2011.

Diagonal Mesh Bridges Past and Future

TGV railway tracks, La Roche-sur-Yon, France.

©Christian Richters

A new 67-meter footbridge designed by Bernard Tschumi Architects and Paris-based Hugh Dutton Associates was recently opened above high-speed TGV railway tracks in La Roche-sur-Yon, France. The diagonal mesh design is reminiscent of the circa 1890s bridge it replaced, but in a tubular form to create a cylindrical volume through which pedestrians pass. The basic design objective was to find a geometric composition that expresses the natural passage of forces. The volume provides a single solution that both spans between the available support points and provides structure for the required protective screens and canopy cover. The bridge design is an homage to the city’s native son Robert Le Ricolais, an innovator in architectural and engineering design known for research in the development of three-dimensional structures.

Extreme Eco

Ecorium Project.

Grimshaw Architects

Following a concept design competition, The Ministry of Environment in South Korea selected Grimshaw Architects, in association Seoul-based Samoo Architects & Engineers, to realize their scheme for the “Ecorium Project,” a 33,000-square-meter nature reserve and educational center. The proposal features arched biome enclosures optimized to maintain tropical plants during the winter by capturing as much low-angle sunlight as possible. A cable-supported glass envelope is suspended from parabolic steel compression arches, and the structures mimic a meandering river. Visitors will move through exhibitions, a 3-D theater, and restaurants, and re-emerge by way of a rooftop garden. The building and outdoor eco-park is intended to showcase global climate change and its impacts on ecosystems.

In this issue:

· Pritzker Prize-Winning Team Debuts at the Met
· ESB to Become an Icon in Sustainability
· Long Island Homes Go Prefab
· New Quad Enhances Student Life
· Gagosian Takes to the Hills
· Taiwan Plans a Palace for Pop

Pritzker Prize-Winning Team Debuts at the Met

The set of Atilla.

Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

Herzog & de Meuron have designed the sets for the current production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Attila at the Metropolitan Opera House. Verdi’s ninth opera takes place in the mid-fifth century as the remnants of the Western Roman Empire crumble before the barbarian invasions and the attempts to spare Italy from Attila the Hun’s hordes. Herzog & de Meuron share production credits with designer Miuccia Prada, who previously collaborated to create the Prada Aoyama Epicenter in Tokyo. The architectural team made its theatrical design debut with a production of Tristan und Isolde for the Berlin State Opera in 2006. Performances of Attila run through March 27.

ESB to Become an Icon in Sustainability

Empire State Building.

Michael Slonecker

The Empire State Building (ESB) is set to become energy efficient. Johnson Controls, a provider of energy efficient and sustainable products and services has selected Sunnyvale, California-based Serious Materials to super-insulate more than 6,500 windows for the ESB’s retrofit project, which could reduce energy costs by more than $400,000 per year. In a first-of-its-kind process, Serious Materials will re-use all existing glass to create super-insulating glass units (IGUs). The thermal performance of the windows is expected to be up to four times as efficient and solar heat gain will be reduced by more than 50%. Johnson Controls is overseeing the full Empire State Building retrofit project, with a team including the Clinton Climate Initiative, Jones Lang LaSalle, and Rocky Mountain Institute. The window upgrades is one of eight measures expected to reduce energy use by 38%, save $4.4 million per year in energy costs, and save 105,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide over the next 15 years. The more than $550 million rebuilding program will make the skyscraper eligible for a LEED Gold certification.

Long Island Homes Go Prefab

Lido Beach (left); Long Beach.

Resolution: 4 Architecture

Resolution: 4 Architecture is busy on the South Shore of Long Island with one prefab house completed in Lido Beach, and a second in pre-construction in Long Beach. The 2,735-square-foot, three-bedroom house in Lido is sited on the edge of the sand dunes and is composed of five modules. It features an upside-down spatial organization, which allows the main living space to be located on the second floor, affording views of the ocean. This floor contains a guest bedroom, bath, and playroom opposite from the open living, dining, and kitchen areas, while the downstairs contains the private spaces. Two cuts in the in the second floor mass open to private decks while inversely, a solid bulkhead element allows for roof access. Contained within the bulkhead is an office opening to a roof deck on both sides. The 1,700-square-foot, two-bedroom, oceanfront prefab in Long Beach is located on a compact site with little space between neighbors. Composed of three modules, the two-story house features a roof bulkhead that provides storage and access to the roof deck; a photovoltaic solar canopy stretches across half of the roof deck and doubles as a covered exterior space to escape the sun.

New Quad Enhances Student Life

Delaware State University Student Life Quad.

Photo by Christopher Lovi

The new 156,000-square-foot Delaware State University Student Life Quad in Dover, designed by Holzman Moss Bottino Architecture (HMBA), was recently dedicated. Composed of three separate buildings — a student center, an athletic strength and conditioning center, and a wellness center — that are tied together by an exterior intramural courtyard, the complex was designed to help the school shed its image as a commuter school. Each building incorporates locally manufactured brick featured throughout the campus, while a collective identity is established by the use of stone, blue horizontal metal siding, large entry canopies, and oversized columns. The $45.4 million project includes a waste management program for demolition of the original student center, use of regional and natural materials, a natural ventilation system for lounge and dining areas, large overhangs at the south and west sides to reduce heat gain, efficient circulation, and light-colored roofs to reduce solar gain.

Gagosian Takes to the Hills

Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills.

Photo by Joshua White

The expansion of the Beverly Hills branch of Gagosian Gallery recently celebrated its official opening. The expansion, designed by Richard Meier & Partners, which also designed the original gallery space in 1995, nearly doubles its size by adding 5,000 square feet to the existing building. The addition is anchored by a new 3,000-square-foot, street-level exhibition space. This adaptive reuse of adjoining retail space with its existing wood barrel vault ceiling, trusses, and steel beam, offer a distinctive counterpoint to the airfoil wing that scoops daylight into the existing gallery. Skylights balance daylight from the north and south sky to support a diversity of installations. A single, 225-square-foot glass-and-aluminum sliding door at the street allows oversized artwork to be unloaded directly into the gallery. New second level offices and a private skylit viewing gallery address the growing gallery’s administrative and exhibition needs. A sculpture terrace on the roof offers views of the city and the surrounding Hollywood Hills.

Taiwan Plans a Palace for Pop

Taipei Pop Music Center.

Reiser + Umemoto RUR Architecture

Reiser + Umemoto RUR Architecture has won a competition sponsored by the Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government, to design the Taipei Pop Music Center (TPMC) in Taiwan. The TPMC will be a cultural hub dedicated to the production and performance of Taiwanese pop music, and will include shops, markets, cafés, and restaurants. An elevated pedestrian zone will bridge the complex’s two buildings containing three major zones. The indoor 3,000-seat Main Concert Hall features an approximately 20-story tower for support spaces, an audio/video recording studio, and offices. The Outdoor Amphitheater features a mobile stage that has four docking positions for events for audiences of up to 16,000 people. The Hall of Fame contains the main exhibition space, a digital media center, two lecture halls, and a Sky View Lounge. The New York office of ARUP is responsible for structural engineering, MEP, sustainability, theater acoustics, lighting, and façade. The complex is expected to be completed in 2014.

In this issue:

· African Burial Ground Interpretive Center Opens
· Historic Theater Goes From Ruins to Royalty
· LEED Platinum for Syracuse University’s Center of Excellence
· Holl Returns to Iowa
· Tower Will Rise Out of the BLU
· Blue Is the Word at Marc by Marc Jacobs in Milan

African Burial Ground Interpretive Center Opens

Visitor’s Interpretive Center for New York’s African Burial Ground.

Photograph by Lourdes Pena/John Samuels

The Visitor’s Interpretive Center for New York’s African Burial Ground, designed by Roberta Washington Architects, with exhibitions designed by Boston-based Amaze, opens this week in Lower Manhattan. Located on the ground floor of the Ted Weiss Federal Building, adjacent to African Burial Ground memorial designed by ARRIS Architects, the center is designed to give visitors a deeper understanding of the historical, archeological, and cultural background of the site, its history, and the science related to the re-internment of the remains of those buried there. The spaces feature rough, textured granite floors with muted “black liberation” colors. The curved entrance to the theater is decorated with African symbols. The ranger’s station evokes drums that were used to disseminate information during the Colonial era. The African Burial Ground National Monument is a multi-agency effort, combining the General Services Administration and the National Park Service. In 1993, the site was designated as a National Historic Landmark.

Historic Theater Goes From Ruins to Royalty

The 3,000-seat Loew’s Kings Theatre in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, which has been vacant since 1978, will be rehabilitated, restored, and reopened as a premier performing arts venue by Houston-based ACE Theatrical Group. Designed by Rapp & Rapp in 1929, its architecture was influenced by the Palace of Versailles and the Paris Opera House, featuring high curved ceilings, ornate plaster walls, wood paneling, pink marble, and a glazed terra-cotta ornamental façade. The theater also features a stage that is approximately 70 feet wide by 30 feet deep, a fly gallery about 90 feet high, and a proscenium opening 60 feet wide by 50 feet high. Construction is expected to begin in two to three years and take approximately two years to complete.

LEED Platinum for Syracuse University’s Center of Excellence

The Syracuse Center of Excellence recently moved into its new headquarters, a five-story, metal-and-glass-clad building designed by Toshiko Mori Architect. The center is a joint effort by local colleges, businesses, and economic agencies led by Syracuse University with a mission to support research, development, and job creation in the fields of indoor environmental quality, renewable energy, and water resource management. The 60,000-square-foot, LEED Platinum building was designed as a green urban intervention anchoring the connective corridor between downtown Syracuse and the university. The project features a vegetative roof among other green features, including a geothermal heating and cooling system and a rainwater collection system. In addition, the Total Indoor Environmental Quality (TIEQ) lab factors, such as temperature, humidity, and air quality, can be manipulated in each workstation to increase productivity. The design team includes Ashley McGraw Architects, Arup for MEP and structural engineering, and landscape architects Hargreaves Associates. A dedication ceremony will take place on 03.05.10.

Holl Returns to Iowa

Steven Holl Architects (SHA), in collaboration with Midwest-based BNIM Architects, has won the commission for a new art studio facility for the University of Iowa (UI) Arts campus, to be located near the SHA-designed Art Building West (completed in 2006). The new building is to replace an original 1936 arts building heavily damaged during flooding of the Iowa River in June 2008. The flood left more than 20 buildings damaged, including the Art Building West. The selection process, which was to find an architect-led team and not to select a specific design, was organized by UI. The SHA/BNIM team was selected for its unique connection to the site, its sensitivity to an adjacent residential neighborhood, and an understanding of challenges related to FEMA-supported projects, among other reasons.

Tower Will Rise Out of the BLU

Handel Architects has completed a 205,000-square-foot residential tower situated at the gateway of the planned Folsom Street Corridor in San Francisco. Officially known as 631 Folsom Street, but dubbed BLU, the 21-story tower rises over a single-story podium with retail and a residential lobby along Folsom Street that is setback to align with the existing street wall. The tall, slender building was designed to maintain view corridors and provide sunlight and air for residents as well as pedestrians. The light-bluish colored glass and metal curtain wall is intended to create transparency. The tower contains six residences per floor, each with open spaces and floor-to-ceiling windows. Sky BLU, as the penthouses are called, feature three floors of living space plus a solarium and roof deck.

Blue Is the Word at Marc by Marc Jacobs in Milan

A new Marc by Marc Jacobs store with an accompanying café and bar, designed by Stephan Jaklitsch Architects (SJA), will open in early April in Milan’s historic Brera district. The 290-square-meter boutique was inserted into the ground floor of a 16th-century residential building. SJA’s design highlights the 12 arched bays. New frameless windows were inserted into each bay drawing attention to the existing architecture and allowing clear views into the store. From the interior, the arches create a deep cavity between the sales floor and façade, visually dissolving the interior and exterior. The store uses the brand’s signature “Marc” blue steel shelving; clear, blue, and mirrored glass; navy blue concrete floors; neon signage; and custom hanging and display fixtures. The café will connect to the store through a sliding blue glass door, and the aesthetics will be consistent with the Marc by Marc Jacobs brand using the same palate of colors and materials as the store.

In this issue:

· Lincoln Center Tops the Vivian Beaumont
· Times Square Hearts Valentines
· A New Museum Lets Kids Learn About Kids
· Curtains Up on West 52nd Street
· Just Add Water
· Sun Shines on Cochin
· School Educates Kids in Malawi about Sustainability

Lincoln Center Tops the Vivian Beaumont

Claire Tow Theater.

H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture

Lincoln Center Theater’s long held desire for a third theater will be realized on the roof of the Vivian Beaumont Theater with the addition of the Claire Tow Theater, designed by H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture. The Tow will become the home of LCT3, Lincoln Center Theater’s programming initiative dedicated to producing the work of new artists and the development of new audiences. Construction will begin this spring on the 23,000-square-foot, two-story addition. Budgeted at $41 million, the project will house a 131-seat theater, dressing rooms, rehearsal and administrative space, and an outdoor terrace surrounded by a green roof. The new building, only partially visible from below, was designed to complement Eero Saarinen’s building, which also houses the Mitzi E. Newshouse Theater. The project is intended to achieve LEED Silver and completed in early 2012.

Times Square Hearts Valentines

Ice Heart.

Moorhead & Moorhead

On the morning of 02.11.10, designers from the architecture and industrial studio Moorhead & Moorhead will lead a team of ice sculptors and engineers to create a large heart in Duffy Square. As a result of winning the second annual invited competition, the firm was commissioned by the Times Square Alliance to construct a 10-foot-tall heart made from masonry-scaled ice blocks. Kaleidoscopic in nature, “Ice Heart” will be activated by the constantly changing lights and colors of Times Square and will transform as it melts — though it will remain intact at least until Valentine’s Day. Okamoto Studio will construct the sculpture; Robert Silman Associates is the structural engineer; and Tillet Lighting Design will illuminate the public space.

A Museum Lets Kids Learn About Kids

DiMenna Children’s History Museum at the New York Historical Society.

Rendering by Lee H. Skolnick Architecture & Design Partnership

The New-York Historical Society has received a $5 million donation to create the DiMenna Children’s History Museum. Designed by Lee H. Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership, the museum-within-a-museum will be located in a vaulted space on the lower level, and feature both permanent and special exhibitions for and about children, incorporating historical artifacts and replicas, objects and illustrations, three-dimensional pavilions, and interactive elements. The creation of the museum is part of the New-York Historical Society’s renovation, designed by Platt Byard Dovell White Architects, to bring a new level of openness to the building while improving the society’s ability to serve the public and showcase its collections and exhibitions. The new space is set to open in November 2011.

Curtains Up on West 52nd Street

The 52nd Street Project.

Vanni Archives

The 52nd Street Project, a non-profit that matches kids from Hells Kitchen with professional theater artists (Cynthia Nixon, Billy Crudup, and Edie Falco to name a few) to create original works, has officially opened in its permanent home designed by BKSK Architects. After occupying various temporary spaces since it was founded 30 years ago, the group now has its own entrance and two floors in the new Archstone Clinton mixed-use development. The 17,000-square-foot space contains dressing rooms, studios, private and open offices, a workshop, and an after-school clubhouse with full kitchen, as well as tutoring and teaching spaces. At the heart of the space is a 156-seat black box theater, which also serves as a multi-purpose courtyard. A five-foot-wide catwalk with an open steel grating spans the length of the theater box and creates a shortcut between offices and a workshop and after school areas on either side. Windows in the street wall of the theater space were opened up, bringing in natural light. The project is expected to achieve LEED Gold.

Just Add Water

Concrete Cloth.

Material ConneXion

The NY office of Material ConneXion held its first annual MEDIUM Award for Material of the Year, naming UK-based company Concrete Canvas’s Concrete Cloth as the winner. Concrete Cloth’s cement-impregnated flexible fabric technology allows it to be quickly and easily molded and set into shapes. When water is added it creates safe, durable, non-combustible structures for a wide range of commercial, military, and humanitarian uses. The award recognizes materials juried into the company’s Materials Library within the past year that demonstrate outstanding technological innovation and the potential to make a significant contribution to the advancement of design, industry, society, and economy. The winners will be on view through 02.19.10.

Sun Shines on Cochin

Choice Marina.

CetraRuddy

Choice Marina, CetraRuddy’s first international commission, recently broke ground in Cochin, on the southwest coast of India. The 138,000-square-foot, 13-story residential resort condominium features three-bedroom homes, with two homes per floor. Rarely seen in Indian developments, the building will include private elevators and grand master bedroom suites with windowed master bathrooms, freestanding bathtubs, and dressing rooms. The design incorporates a rooftop lounge and pool, outdoor verandas, a private terraced garden that steps down to the waterfront, and two private yachts for use by the residents. Responding to the area’s tropical climate, the two towers are oriented to reduce solar heat gain and to minimize the impact of monsoons without compromising views. Each of the towers will bear an array of fixed and operable exterior screening and sun-shading devices to enhance the curtain wall performance and further improve energy efficiency. Occupancy is slated for July 2011.

School Educates Kids in Malawi about Sustainability

Raising Malawi Academy for Girls.

Adams Kara Taylor/Studio MDA

Work on the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls, designed by NYC-based Studio MDA, is underway. Located on a 100-acre site on the outskirts of Lilongwe, Malawi, the school will board 450 girls. The campus will contain a library and administration building, dining hall, gymnasium, wellness center, sports field, 30 classrooms, 12 dormitories, and 18 staff houses.

The design concept is sustainable throughout. Most construction materials are sourced locally, such as Hydraform bricks made from soil on site, avoiding the use of burned bricks that have been responsible for widespread deforestation in Malawi. A field of photovoltaic panels on the roof of the gymnasium and passive ventilation and natural light will help the school to be energy independent. Two constructed wetlands will process all the black and grey water to be used for irrigation in the playing field. Learning landscapes and educational agriculture areas will educate the students on the ecosystems in Malawi and help to develop sustainable agriculture in the country. Some of the other participants in Raising Malawi’s design team include the New York office of ARUP, Brooklyn-based landscape architects dlandstudio, London’s Adams Kara Taylor engineering, ePod Solar of British Columbia, and IM Designs of Malawi. The school, being funded by pop-star Madonna, is expected to open in 2012.

In this issue:

· Students to Till Soil in Brooklyn
· New Center Will Showcase Korean Culture
· Smart Medical Facility Has Heart
· More Art Pops Up on Construction Sites
· NYC Waterfront Revitalization Receives Funding
· NY-Based Landscape Architects Create New Destinations Nationwide

Students to Till Soil in Brooklyn

P.S. 216.

WORK Architecture Company

WORK Architecture Company has completed a design for the first Edible Schoolyard New York (ESYNY), founded by chef and organic food activist Alice Waters, which will be located at P.S. 216, in Gravesend, Brooklyn. The goal of the program is to create a space where schoolchildren plant, harvest, cook, and eat together, creating an interdisciplinary curriculum tied into regular academic subjects. At the heart of the project is the kitchen classroom, where up to 30 students can prepare and enjoy meals together. The design is a series of interlinking sustainable systems that produce energy and heat, collect rainwater, process compost, and sort waste with off-grid infrastructure. Part of P.S. 216’s existing asphalt-covered parking lot will be replaced by a quarter-acre organic farm, a kitchen classroom, and a mobile four-season greenhouse, all combined in a newly designed, self-sustaining educational building. The kitchen’s butterfly-shaped roof channels rain water for reclamation.

New Center Will Showcase Korean Culture

The New York Korea Center.

SAMOO Architecture

SAMOO Architecture, the NY studio of the Seoul-based firm, has won an international competition for the design of The New York Korea Center, a new home for the Korean Cultural Service. Located on 32nd Street between Park and Lexington Avenues, east of Manhattan’s Korea Town, the eight-story, 33,000-square-foot facility will offer spaces for exhibitions, performances, lectures, and administration. A multi-layered glass façade creates a screen wall that illuminates three sculptural figures within — composed of polished ceramic, rough terracotta, and milled wood, representing heaven, earth, and humanity. Layered behind the screen wall, display panels will convey a changing visual message to passers-by. At street level, exhibitions will focus on current popular trends in Korean culture, including music, movies, food, technology, and TV dramas. Construction is scheduled to begin at the end of the year and LEED accreditation will be pursued.

Smart Medical Facility Has Heart

The Milstein Family Heart Center at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia.

Pei Cobb Freed & Partners

The six-story, 142,000-square-foot Milstein Family Heart Center at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia recently opened. Designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, the $50 million LEED-Gold project features a curved glass curtain wall that acts as a counterpoint to the existing masonry buildings in the hospital complex. Called a “climate wall,” the energy-efficient, double-glazing construction offers views of the Hudson River and the Palisades beyond. Electronically-controlled vertical shades maintain a temperate internal environment and present a constantly changing façade. At night, strategically deployed lighting refracts through the glass envelope, which is suspended from the uppermost floor by a web of stainless-steel cables. The facility provides a full range of medical services including: diagnostics; ambulatory surgery; cardiac catheterization laboratories; medical practice suites; critical care units; and an education/conference center. The new building is connected to its neighbors by a series of inclined glass bridges that traverse the vertical space of the project.

More Art Pops Up on Construction Sites

“Walking Men 99.”

Maya Barkai/Courtesy ADA Art Consulting & Elinor Milchan

The Alliance for Downtown New York is installing five new works of public art this month at construction sites in Lower Manhattan as part of its “Re:Construction” program. The program, which began in 2007, helps mitigate the impact of construction sites by creating temporary artworks. The organization, with four arts consultants, identified artists to create installations at the sites. on a South Street construction fence, “Fence Embroidery with Embellishment,” by Katherine Daniels features ribbon-like stitches of green and white materials woven in geometric patterns to evoke stems and vines. At 99 Church Street, “Walking Men 99,” by Maya Barkai depicts 99 versions of the international “walk” symbol. Amy Wilson’s “It Takes Time to Turn a Space Around,” on a West Thames Park construction fence, is an ensemble of child-like characters in a storybook world. “The O2 Project,” by Elinor Milchan represents a garden of air bubbles at Fiterman Hall. And “Rendering Leonard,” by Helen Dennis tries to capture the city’s energy and flux at 56 Leonard Street. The Downtown Alliance received a $1.5 million grant in 2008 from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation for about 30 projects over three years. Installation is expected to be completed by the end of this month.

NYC Waterfront Revitalization Receives Funding
The Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance reports that the New York State Department of State, via the Environmental Protection Fund, has granted $23.8 million for waterfront revitalization projects, $8.9 of which will be directed for projects in NYC. In addition to borough by borough projects, the funds will go to citywide projects, including: the NYC Comprehensive Waterfront Plan: Vision 2020; Urban Park Rangers: Adapting to Climate Change in NYC; Catalyst for Neighborhood Parks: Reclaiming the Waterfront; and Community Eco-Docks. Click here for a synopsis of all the projects.

NY-Based Landscape Architects Create New Destinations Nationwide

Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park BY Thomas Balsley Associates.

Image ©Sneary Architectural Illustration

NYC-based landscape architecture firm Thomas Balsley Associates, has completed the Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park in Tampa, FL. Formerly a lifeless riverfront site, the new urban park has performance lawns and gardens, water features and lighting displays, play areas, and a dog run. The park is framed by the new Tampa Museum of Art, designed by San Francisco-based Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects, and the Glazer Children’s Museum, designed by John Curran, AIA.

Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects is working on the master plan for Shoelace Park, a one-mile ribbon of parkland along the Bronx River, a project of the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation in partnership with the Bronx River Alliance. Work will include storm water and erosion control mitigation, streambank stabilization techniques, and control of invasive vegetation; the firm has already hosted a charrette with the local community.

Balmori Associates is working with H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture on the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT), an international cultural and scientific center for conservation adjacent to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. The firm is transforming a parking lot into more than an asphalt desert with spines of research files, rain gardens, and braided pathways that will operate as an open-air botanical lab.

In this issue:
· Recipe for New Design: The Robert at MAD
· What’s Cooking at the Freedom Tower
· Autohaus Shifts into Gear
· More Mixed-Use for Melrose Commons
· Louvre Expands LENS to Lille

Recipe for New Design: The Robert at MAD

The Robert.

Photo Credit: Andrea Malizia

The Robert, a 132-seat restaurant, recently opened on the ninth floor of the Museum of Arts and Design. Schefer Design created a flexible, open interior environment that maximizes views of Columbus Circle and Central Park. Materials such as metallic porcelain tiles, expanded metal ceiling panels, stainless-steel trim, tightly upholstered metallic fabric panels, decorative plaster, and strategically placed mirrored panels create a back-drop that reflects the museum’s architecture and provides a setting for selected art installations. London-based designer Philip Michael Wolfson created sculptural pieces including the restaurant’s two reception desks and a 15-foot-long steel communal table with a six-foot-tall “sound wave” element. Mobile-like LED-lit Lucite chandeliers and sconces were designed by San Francisco-based designer Johanna Grawunder, and Vladimir Kagan designed the upholstered furniture. A new video art piece, “Orbit 2″ by artist Jennifer Steinkamp, is the first work to be displayed on the restaurant’s 103-inch plasma screen.

What’s Cooking at the Freedom Tower

The Subway restaurant is located in the Northwest Pod — containers NW31, NW32 AND NW33.

Courtesy PANYNJ; Courtesy DCM Erectors

A Subway restaurant has opened for Freedom Tower construction workers who want to stay in the tower during their half-hour lunch break (as the tower gets higher, it could take them 45 minutes to get to the street). The restaurant is like any other Subway, but the big difference is that it is housed in a series of shipping containers that will rise in tandem with the tower itself. A Subway franchisee was subcontracted by DCM Erectors, which fabricates and installs all of the tower’s structural steel. DCM Erectors was given the layout and they had the container fabricated to suit the constraints of the structure of the tower. The restaurant occupies three of nine top level containers. The remaining six containers in the pod are for dining areas and mechanical services.

Autohaus Shifts into Gear

Mercedes-Benz Autohaus.

The Spector Group

The Spector Group has been awarded the contract to design the new Mercedes-Benz Manhattan dealership in Clinton Park, a mixed-use development on 11th Avenue between 53rd and 54th Streets designed by TEN Arquitectos and currently under construction by Two Trees Management. The dealership will occupy parts of the first two floors of the complex for showrooms and offices, and three levels below ground for service facilities. This is the only company-owned dealership in the country, and the flagship of the Mercedes-Benz Autohaus initiative, a new set of design standards geared toward optimizing the customer’s experience. The new facility will combine brand and architectural design elements that are oriented toward creating more transparency, comfort, and convenience. It will feature state-of-the-art showroom technology and a service area. In addition to the dealership, the $700 million Clinton Park includes more than 900 mixed income rental apartments, retail space, a health club, and a NYPD equestrian facility.

More Mixed-Use for Melrose Commons

Melrose Commons North Urban Renewal Area.

Magnusson Architecture & Planning

One of the last large city-owned tracts of land in the Melrose Commons North Urban Renewal Area (URA) in the Bronx will be transformed into a mixed-use project designed by Magnusson Architecture & Planning (MAP). Three connected buildings will include 260 units of low- to moderate-income family housing, subsidized senior housing, studios, and 27,500 square feet of retail space. The project is designed for LEED Silver certification; green features include solar heating, roof gardens, and storm water management. Developed by CPC Resources, The Bridge, and The Briarwood Organization; the latter will also construct the project. Under the auspices of the City of New York Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), 2,743 dwelling units have already been built or are currently under construction within the Melrose Commons URA, contributing to the city’s $7.5 billion New Housing Marketplace Plan (NHMP) to build and preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing.

Louvre Expands LENS to Lille

Louvre LENS.

SANAA/ImreyCulbert/Catherine Mosbach

Ground was recently broken on a former coalfield for the new Louvre LENS near the city of Lille in northern France. Co-designed by NY-based Imrey Culbert, Tokyo-based SANAA, and Paris-based Mosbach Paysagistes, the new branch of the Louvre will span 300,000 square feet and will house hundreds of artworks from the Louvre’s collection. Located on a 153-acre site, five one-story transparent and reflective pavilions will blend into the landscape. One of the pavilions, the Gallery of Time, will feature a semi-permanent exhibition of artworks regardless of styles and origins and arranged in chronological order — a departure from the way art is exhibited in Paris. A square-shaped pavilion in the center serves as the main reception area and will contain a large staircase that leads down to the first basement level. It will house a place where visitors can look down into the museum’s studios and see where artworks are prepared for display.

In this issue:

· Diana Center Opens on Broadway
· The Wright Stuff
· College Undergoes Fashionable Renovation
· New Theater Leaps to the Future
· Collaborative Design Studio Popped Up in the West Village
· Groundbreaking for a New Academy for New York’s Finest

Diana Center Opens on Broadway

Diana Center.

Photo credit: Albert Vecerka/Esto

When Barnard students return next semester, they will have access to the new Diana Center, designed by WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism. Located adjacent to Lehman Lawn, the 98,000-square-foot, multi-use building will serve as a new nexus for the campus and the community in Morningside Heights. The center’s wedge-shaped design frames a sightline from one end of the campus to the other, linking Barnard’s entrance gates to Milbank Hall. The seven-story building has an ascending, double-height glass atrium and a glazed staircase that brings in natural light and views through gradient patterns on the curtain wall. The building’s façade is composed of 1,154 clear and etched color glass panels of varying widths. LEED Silver certified, the center’s facilities include classrooms, studios, a library, and administrative and gallery spaces for Barnard’s architecture and art history departments. The building also houses dining rooms, a public café, a 100-seat black box theater, and a wood-paneled event space. The $70 million building is the capstone of the college’s multi-year master plan to increase spatial efficiency, improve infrastructures, and add academic and administrative space.

The Wright Stuff

The Wright.

©2009 Philip Greenberg

As part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, a new restaurant, called The Wright, in honor of the museum’s architect, has opened. The 1,600-square-foot space, designed by Andre Kikoski Architect, references the building’s architecture by featuring sculptural forms, including a curvilinear wall of walnut layered with illuminated fiber-optics; a torqued bar clad in a skin of custom metalwork and topped in seamless white Corian; an undulating banquette with blue leather seating backed by illuminated planes of a woven grey texture; and a layered ceiling canopy of a taut white membrane. A site-specific sculpture, The horizon produced by a factory once it had stopped producing, by British artist Liam Gillick, was commissioned for the space. The piece comprises a sequence of horizontal planks of powder-coated aluminum mounted to the walls and ceiling that creates a modular skin on the interior’s surface.

College Undergoes Fashionable Renovation

Multi-functional space and reception area at LIM.

Photos by Paul Warchol

After a gut renovation of a circa 1880 six-story townhouse on East 53rd Street off Fifth Avenue, Butler Rogers Baskett (BRB) designed a new facility for LIM, the College of Business and Fashion. BRB sought to remedy the ad hoc architectural changes made throughout the school’s 30-year residence in the building. Given a modest budget, their goal was to refashion the cramped townhouse into a contemporary, creative environment. Renovations include new fashion studios, classrooms, computer labs, and offices. On the ground floor, BRB created a multi-functional public space that can seat 75 for lectures, fashion shows, and industry social events. A 20-foot-long, sliding, red lacquer millwork door with a clear glass, elliptical window is one of the key image-defining objects in the new design. This elliptical shape has evolved into the school’s newly branded logo and is used throughout the building to identify and reinforce areas of importance. C&G Partners was commissioned to create some of the signage.

New Theater Leaps to the Future

Jerome Robbins Theater at the Baryshnikov Arts Center.

WASA/Studio A

The newly renovated 238-seat Jerome Robbins Theatre at the Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) on West 37th Street, designed by WASA/Studio A, now accommodates dance, music, and theater. Designed to achieve LEED certification, the space juxtaposes new and old materials. Cor-Ten steel with a warm patina wraps around seating areas, sustainable wood panels are employed for acoustics, and glowing synthetic resin is used for stair handrails, and each seat has superior sightlines. A fully motorized rigging system allows for elaborate production capabilities with multiple set changes. Advanced variable acoustics were achieved using removable wall panels. The new theater, scheduled to open in early 2010, is an organic extension of the existing center.

Collaborative Design Studio Popped Up in the West Village

The Pop-Up Design Clinic was open from 12.05-13.-09.

re:design ARCHITECTURE + INTERIORS

As an antidote the slowdown in business, six professionals banded together to open a Pop-Up Design Clinic in the West Village. The storefront window advertised “FREE Design Consultation,” and during the nine days it was open, more than 170 “clients” came in to take advantage their architecture, interiors, and construction expertise. The projects ranged from gut renovations, new additions to existing homes, space planning, bathroom and kitchen renovations, and advice on furniture placement. Clients varied, too — a 13-year-old wanted help designing her bedroom, a woman with MS needed to design an accessible bathroom, and an 80-year-old woman about to move into an assisted care facility wanted her new home to be well designed and sensational. The Pop-Up Clinicians anticipate that some of the free consultations will translate into paying clients. Nevertheless, they are satisfied enough to already be making plans to resurrect the project next spring/summer. Called Design.Starts.Here., the collaborative design studio consisted of Brenda Bello, AIA, Jonathan Lundstrom, Basil Walter, AIA (Basil Walter Architect), Poonam Khanna, AIA (Re:Design Architecture + Interiors and Basil Water Architect), Ed Gavagan (PraxisNYC), and Jonathan Baker, AIA (Baker Works Architecture).

Groundbreaking for a New Academy for New York’s Finest

NYPD Police Academy.

Perkins + Will

Construction is underway on the new NYPD Police Academy designed by Perkins + Will. Located on a 30-acre site (and former NYPD Auto Pound) in College Point, Queens, the new facility will consolidate training facilities for civilians, recruits, and active police officers that are currently scattered throughout the city. The first phase of the campus includes: an academic building; classrooms; tactical gyms that simulate street conditions; instructional offices; and administrative support spaces. This phase of construction is a joint venture of Turner Construction Company and STV Incorporated. Subsequent phases of the project will include a new firing range, a tactical training village, and a vehicle training course. Once completed, the new academy will be able to train approximately 2,000 recruits at any one time. The complex is being designed to achieve a LEED Silver rating. The total cost for the first phase of the new academy is estimated at $750 million and is scheduled to be completed in 2013. In 1989, Mayor Koch proposed that a new academy be built and finally, at the close of 2009, Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly took part in the recent groundbreaking ceremony.

In this issue:

· 9/11 Casualty Breaks Ground in Lower Manhattan
· New Window to Complete Eldridge Street Synagogue’s Restoration
· Harlem Goes Green and Affordable for Retro-Fit
· NY Architects Redefine Las Vegas Strip
· New Super-Tall Responds to Sun in Seoul

9/11 Casualty Breaks Ground in Lower Manhattan

Fiterman Hall.

Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Architects

Ground was broken on the new Fiterman Hall for the Borough of Manhattan Community College. Located adjacent to the World Trade Center site, the building suffered structural damage and contamination during 9/11 and had been covered in black netting for years. The facility, designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Architects, will be a 15-story vertical campus that weaves together public spaces and educational facilities. In addition to 96 classrooms, computer labs, a library, and assembly rooms, the facility will contain community gathering areas, a small conference center, two gallery spaces, and a café. It also features a large, multistory circulation atrium with circular stairs to alleviate elevator loads during class changes, and a planted roof. The total cost of the project is $325 million, which includes $66 million for the deconstruction and decontamination of the old building. $139 million is being provided by the city, with the balance coming from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. Construction is scheduled to be complete in 2012.

New Window to Complete Eldridge Street Synagogue’s Restoration

Before: Temporary window to be replaced by the Kiki Smith-Deborah Gans commission.

Kate Milford

Marking the final significant component of the 20-year restoration of the 1887 Eldridge Street Synagogue, a NYC Landmark and a National Historic Landmark on the Lower East Side, the Museum at Eldridge Street has commissioned artist Kiki Smith and architect Deborah Gans, AIA, to create a new east window. The window will parallel the original in its stained-glass medium, replacing a clear tablet-shaped glass-block design that was introduced in 1944-45 after the original window was damaged and removed. Sixteen feet in diameter, the window is the focal point of the sanctuary and occupies nearly the entire top half of the building’s eastern wall. The design, a galaxy of stars against a blue firmament, recreates in stained-glass the blue and gold star pattern painted on the walls immediately surrounding the new window. Using flash glass technology, it will be possible to etch yellow stars into a blue field without any outline or leading so that they will appear as more intense sources of light within the glow of the window. The new window is expected to be installed in spring 2010.

Harlem Goes Green and Affordable for Retro-Fit

West Harlem retrofit apartment buildings.

Dattner Architects

Dattner Architects is set to retrofit a row of 10 circa 1905 apartment buildings in West Harlem. The buildings, containing a total of 198 apartments, are six stories plus a cellar, and are for the most part identical in design. The firm prepared a Green Retrofit Report to identify feasible opportunities to improve the environmental performance, consistent with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Green Retrofit Program and subsequently developed a scope of recommendations to address basic repairs and make sustainable improvements. Key green features include: the upgrade of energy systems; installation of a photovoltaic array; new street trees; thermally improved windows and doors; water conserving plumbing fixtures; energy-efficient lighting with motion detector controls; and sustainable materials and finishes in public spaces. This affordable and sustainable housing project is being developed by Jonathan Rose Companies.

NY Architects Redefine Las Vegas Strip

CityCenter.

RV Architecture

The $8.5 billion CityCenter complex on the Strip in Las Vegas began opening its new buildings with Vdara Hotel & The Hotel and Spa, a non-gaming, 1,495-suite, 57-story building designed by RV Architecture, under the leadership of Rafael Viñoly, FAIA. The hotel’s crescent-shaped tower is distinguished by three parallel, offset arcs rising to varying heights. The second to open is Crystals, with 500,000 square feet of high-end retail and restaurants. Studio Daniel Libeskind designed the multi-faceted building and The Rockwell Group designed the interiors. Rising from Crystals is Veer Towers, twin glass 37-story towers that lean towards each other and contain loft-like residences.

The third to open this month is the 47-story the Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas, design by Kohn Pederson Fox, also a non-gaming hotel with 392 rooms and 225 branded condominium residences. The building draws inspiration from traditional Chinese motifs and features vertical panels of aluminum and glass that interlock with horizontal frit atop a podium made of zinc, titanium, granite and limestone. The fourth to open is the complex’s centerpiece — the 61-story ARIA Resort & Casino, designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli. Set to have its grand opening on December 16, the ARIA will have over 4,000 guest rooms, 150,000 square feet of gaming, and a 1,800-seat theater that will showcase Cirque du Soleil’s “Viva Elvis.” The final element in this ensemble is the Harmon, designed by Foster + Partners, a 400-room luxury boutique hotel, slated for late 2010.

CityCenter will be one of the world’s largest green developments. ARIA and Vdara are the first Las Vegas hotels to achieve LEED Gold certification and Crystals also has received LEED Gold. The remaining venues are expected to receive a combination of LEED Gold and Silver ratings. Located on 67 acres, CityCenter is a joint venture between MGM MIRAGE and Infinity World Development, a subsidiary of Dubai World. This project to build a city within a city began in 2004 with Ehrenkrantz, Eckstut and Kuhn Architects’s master plan. Gensler is executive architect overseeing the work.

New Super-Tall Responds to Sun in Seoul

Digital Media City Landmark Tower.

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill

The NY office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) celebrated the groundbreaking of the Digital Media City Landmark Tower. Located north of the Han River at the western edge of Seoul, the super-tall tower rises as a gateway to the city. Curved forms shape the 2,100-foot-tall building. Perimeter mega-columns reinforce the transforming mass and provide a natural break to a series of solar louvers. A pattern of both horizontal and vertical fins shield the interior from the sun, responding to the time of day. Together with a crown that collects and channels light and helps power the building through wind turbines, the architecture reinforces sustainability strategies at the core of the design. High-efficiency photovoltaic panels maximize solar energy and provide additional shade where needed. Radiant cooling through chilled beams, radiant floor heating, and drawing tempered air through green atriums add further efficiency. Additionally, atrium gardens and open-air green spaces throughout the building act as natural air filters. Upon completion in 2014, the project will be the tallest building in East Asia.

In this issue:
· Lincoln Squared: Koch Theater Opens, David Rubenstein Atrium Awaits Debut
· Architects, Engineers Fight Rising Currents
· A New Light Fantastic Crowns Fifth Avenue
· Healthcare Gets an Upgrade in New Jersey
· Dallas Unveils Bush Presidential Center

Lincoln Squared: Koch Theater Opens, David Rubenstein Atrium Awaits Debut

The David H. Koch Theater (left) by JCJ Architecture, and the David Rubenstein Atrium by Tod Williams Billie Tsien.

New York City Opera; dBox

The David H. Koch Theater, formerly known as the New York State Theater, the shared home of the New York City Ballet and the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center, has completed a $107 million renovation. Originally designed by Philip Johnson Associates in 1964, JCJ Architecture has now renovated the building to add comfort and accessibility. New side aisles were carved out of the orchestra maintaining the integrity of the theater’s original seating plan and retaining 40-inch legroom and unobstructed sightlines. Acoustical enhancements include the enlargement of the orchestra pit — now on a mechanical lift, and modification of the stage apron, allowing the pit to rest at any depth. Other acoustical interventions include the removal of carpet in the auditorium and the addition of new acoustic sidewalls near the proscenium. A complete onsite media suite captures and distributes high-definition images and digital sound. The theater itself is now outfitted with robotic remote-controlled cameras, as well as approximately 60 broadcast service plates. The renovated theater has a total capacity of 2,586, including new prime spaces for patrons with disabilities.

The David Rubenstein Atrium, a new gateway to the Lincoln Center campus at Broadway, between 62nd and 63rd Streets, designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien, is still in previews. When it opens on December 17 it will offer a range of programs such as free weekly performances, a café, information and ticket desk, restrooms, and free Wi-Fi access. The new 7,000-square-foot space respects the materials used throughout Lincoln Center and achieves an open and accessible environment, an essential goal of the 16-acre campus redevelopment. Highlights include: two vertical gardens surrounded by stone benches and alcove seating; a floor-to-ceiling fountain incorporating streams of water surrounded by Pietra Luna stone benches; a media wall that displays performance information and a canvas for video presentations; a felt wall art installation of 114 panels by Dutch textile artist Claudy Jungsta; and 16 architecturally distinctive oculi lighting fixtures that bring natural light and state-of-the-art illumination into the atrium’s interior.

Architects, Engineers Fight Rising Currents

(L-R): Zone 1 — subway car reefs, oyster farms, and wind turbines at Statues of Liberty Island; Zone 2 — wetlands near Staten Island; Zone 3 — slip in Sunset Park, Brooklyn; Zone 4 — offshore wind turbines among oyster racks.

Palisade Bay Team: Guy Nordenson and Associates, Catherine Seavitt Studio, Architecture Research Office

The Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center have initiated Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfront, an eight-month project bringing together teams of architects, engineers, and landscape designers to address and create infrastructure solutions in response to rising water levels. Organized by Barry Bergdoll, Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at MoMA, the project is based largely on preliminary findings of the Latrobe Team, a multi-disciplinary Princeton University-affiliated group funded by the Fellows of the AIA and led by structural engineer Guy Nordenson.

Four team leaders were selected to focus on a specific geographic waterfront area. A team led by Paul Lewis, AIA, Marc Tsurumaki, AIA, and David Lewis of LTL Architects will work on the Northwest Palisade Bay/Hudson River area, which includes parts of New Jersey, Liberty Park/Ellis Island, and the Statue of Liberty and waters; Matthew Baird, AIA, of Matthew Baird Architects will focus his team on the Southwest Palisade Bay/Kill van Kull area, which includes Bayonne, NJ, Bayonne Piers, and northern Staten Island and waters; Eric Bunge, AIA, and Mimi Hoang of nARCHITECTS and their team are assigned the South Palisade Bay/Verrazano Narrows area, including eastern Staten Island, and Bay Ridge and Sunset Park in Brooklyn, and waters; and Kate Orff, ASLA, of SCAPE Studio, and team will concentrate on the Northeast Palisade Bay/Buttermilk Channel and Gowanus Canal area, including Governors Island, and the Red Hook area in Brooklyn. The brainstorming workshops will conclude in early January, and in March the second phase of the project, an exhibition of the proposed projects developed by the teams, will be exhibited at MoMA.

A New Light Fantastic Crowns Fifth Avenue

400 Fifth Avenue.

Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects

The Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects-designed 60-story tower at 400 Fifth Avenue recently topped out. The project will contain a five star hotel with 214 hotel rooms, including 157 guestrooms, and 57 hotel/suite apartments, in addition to 190 luxury residential condos and amenities including a restaurant, bar, spa, and ground level retail. The limestone-clad building consists of a tower set back from the street atop a 10-story podium, which, in terms of scale, rhythm, and materiality, relates to surrounding buildings such as Tiffany, Gorham, and 404 Fifth Avenue. The tower is composed of vertical masonry bands and windows capped by a metallic crown. Capping the tower are inclined planes of linen-finished stainless steel inserted between the masonry columns and designed to conceal mechanical equipment. When lit they act as large-scale reflectors to form a luminous crown. Developed by Bizzi & Partners Development, the project is expected to be completed in fall 2010.

Healthcare Gets an Upgrade in New Jersey

St. Joseph’s Healthcare System.

Francis Cauffman Architects

The St. Joseph’s Healthcare System recently broke ground on a new, $100-million, 230,000-square-foot critical care building, launching the expansion and renovation of its regional medical center in downtown Paterson, NJ. The master plan and the new building, both designed by Francis Cauffman Architects, will upgrade the hospital’s services and focus on revitalizing the city’s economic health. In contrast to the angular forms of the existing brick campus buildings, the facility is composed of two interlocking elliptical forms raised on a plinth clad in horizontal metal panels. The upper floors are comprised of glass of varying translucencies to provide patient privacy and form patterns intended to scale down the large volume of the building. When completed in 2012, the ground floor will house an expanded emergency room designed to accommodate 125,000 visits annually, with separate entrances for the pediatric and adult emergency departments, and a 50,000-square-foot addition to the level two regional trauma center. The upper level will have 12 operating rooms and two levels of cardiac, surgical, and critical and intensive care units.

Dallas Unveils Bush Presidential Center

George W. Bush Presidential Center.

Robert A.M. Stern Architects

Robert A.M. Stern Architects recently unveiled the design for the George W. Bush Presidential Center located on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The modern brick and limestone structure is designed to complement the American Georgian character of the campus and evoke both Texas and Washington, D.C. It will house an archive, museum, and policy institute. Visitors will enter through Freedom Hall, a large, light-filled open space that will tie the different aspects of the museum experience together. On one side of the hall, visitors will tour a replica of the Oval Office as it was during President Bush’s tenure, complete with an outdoor Texas Rose Garden that mimics the White House Rose Garden. The opposite side of the hall will contain a temporary exhibit space, ceremonial courtyard, and a café. The institute portion will include a conference center with a 364-seat auditorium with simultaneous translation and broadcast capabilities, offices for scholars, and a presidential suite for receptions.

The landscape, designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, will have large tree-shaded lawns, numerous gardens and courtyards, tall prairie grass with seasonal wildflowers, and savannah and woodland clearings that provide a range of native habitats for butterflies, birds, and other wildlife. In addition, the landscape will function as an urban park, providing numerous spaces for events and gatherings, including performances in the outdoor amphitheater and intramural sports on the west lawn.